Here’s a quick list of useful items healthcare workers need to protect themselves and others from COVID-19: Protective gear and medical supplies Listen up, readers who work in other scientific fields, or even paint or work with wood: those protective masks, gloves, protective gowns, goggles, and face shields are crucial on the front lines of COVD-19 response. As we all know by now, COVID-19 is pretty darn contagious, and it spreads through bodily fluids like saliva, often traveling through the air after a sneeze or cough....

Germs first came into focus, literally, under the microscope of Robert Koch, a doctor practicing in East Prussia in the 19th century. Until then, as Popular Science reported in September 1883, getting sick was attributed to everything from evil spirits to “impurities of the blood.” Koch first eyed Bacillus anthracis, or anthrax, in animal tissue in 1877, from which he linked microbes with disease. But it was his isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1881—then known as consumption—that set off an avalanche of germ discovery....

When two blackholes collided 1.3 billion years ago, the impact released three suns’ worth of energy into the fabric of spacetime. On a Monday in 2015, at a remote facility in Hanford, Wash., researchers detected that ancient cosmic impact as its effects swung past Earth. They mapped its gravity wave, whose length was almost incomprehensibly small (1/10,000th the diameter of a proton), to audio and heard a whoop. That tiny soundtrack was more than 100 years in the making....

The short answer: it fell off. The long answer? Let’s start with how we tan. Put simply, a tan is a protective mechanism for the skin according to Dr. Ali Hendi, a skin cancer specialist from Georgetown University. There are a few cells in the basal (bottom) layer of the epidermis (or outer layer of skin) called melanocytes which produce a pigment called melanin. These cells are interspersed within the skin and make up about 1 percent of the skin....

Games for Change was founded in 2004 with the mission of advocating the power of games beyond firing colored shells at Mario characters or taking out aliens. The non-profit, based in New York City, does double duty in what it teaches students. President Susanna Pollack comments on this two-fold mission, being “to excite kids to see the value and learn how to make games. But not to stop there—we want the next generation to know games are actually part of a solution to social issues and are not just a form of entertainment....

Frequent trips to your local supermarket may not be the most economical option at the moment. A membership to a warehouse club like Sam’s Club is more budget-friendly, as it allows you to purchase items in bulk at unbeatable prices not found elsewhere. If you’re somehow turned off by the expensive membership costs of these clubs, don’t fret, you can get a Sam’s Club Membership for only $19.99 with Free Rotisserie Chicken & Cupcakes PLUS $10 Sam’s Club E-Gift Card....

Here are a few options filtration systems worth checking out: Faucet filters take up virtually no extra space and installing them is straight-forward. This chrome version looks good and purifies without sacrificing water pressure, which can be an issue with other faucet-mounted systems. The Engdenton filters also last for up to 320 gallons, which is more than three times the lifespan of some of its competitors. One drawback is that it only fits on standard faucets, so if yours doesn’t fit the bill you’ll either have to replace your entire faucet or choose a different filter....

These “authentic locales” are the exact opposite: mass-market reproductions of patched together sets for a film. They will evoke a sense of the world, but they are not real. Nothing is real. It is an imitation of an illusion designed to trigger a memory. We would be more forgiving, and even excited about this theme park, if we didn’t hate this video so badly. “Imagine actually firing the laser cannons of the Millennium Falcon,” the enthusiastic voiceover declares....

The WWF just received $5 million under Google’s new grant program, the Global Impact Awards, with which it plans to use technology like aerial surveillance and radio-frequency ID tags on wild animals. Poaching has been a problem for centuries, but it’s getting worse because of demand from wealthy customers–especially in emerging Asian markets. It’s a “crisis that is emptying the world’s forests and oceans,” in the words of the WWF–and it’s worth $7 to $10 billion annually....

But there’s a lesser-known hack that can save you even more money on snagging the gadget you want — buying refurbished. Not only can it lessen the stress on your wallet, but it also helps you cut back on electronic waste. If it’s a new laptop you’re looking for, this deal on the refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G3 is on sale for less than $300. Whether you need a computer for writing your thesis papers or a reliable device that can keep up with your endless reports at work, this EliteBook can step up to the task....

So where do you turn for cover? Maybe the home turf of a black bear. That’s according to research published this week in the journal Oecologia, which found that in the mountains of Nevada, black bears play a key role in moderating competition between all kinds of smaller predators. “Many carnivore species are declining, but black bears and coyotes are exceptions,” says Remington Moll, the study’s lead author and wildlife biologist at the University of New Hampshire....

This week’s episode is about all things hot—providing just a quick taste of the sorts of stories you’ll find in the latest issue of Popular Science. We’re now a digital-only magazine, which means you can access it right here and now. FACT: Some skyscrapers are so shiny they turn into death rays By Corinne Iozzio In 2013, a London skyscraper known as the “Walkie Talkie” building made its mark on its neighborhood in an unusual way: Sunlight bouncing off the topmost floors of the bulbous facade melted cars on the street below....

Audi is trying to do something about that problem. The automaker is one of many that are working to build a slew of new connected convenience and safety features into its upcoming cars. Doing that right means carrying out meticulous testing to make sure the tech works as well as it sounds—which includes initiatives like Audi’s newest pilot program that examined using new connected tech to keep people safe both inside and outside of the car....

While the military practices for this, and has decades of experience fighting wars in urban and mountainous terrain, another possibility is to use new technologies to create a signal relay between soldiers in the terrain and commanders farther away. To get there, the Army is developing an “aerial tier network,” or a system of flying machines that can serve as a signal relay. An “[Aerial Tier Network] allows us to send data up to an asset in the aerial tier and then back down, permitting the signal to hop over obstructions to effectively obtain more nodes and extend the area of communication,” said Scott Newman, a project manager with the Army’s Program Executive Office Command Control Communications-Tactical....

Folding computers We had seen Lenovo’s folding computer prototype before CES 2020, but it officially became a consumer product at the show. The ThinkPad X1 will ship in the second half of 2020 for $2,500 if everything goes according to plan. That’s good news if you’re a fan of folding devices. As for the rest of the folding machines, however, they were still fully in prototype—or at least pre-production—mode. Dell showed off a pair of folding computers, including the Ori, which has a folding display, and the Duet, which takes the XPS 13-inch 2-in-1 laptop design and replaces the keyboard with another full-sized screen....

1. Natural history 3.06 MB Over 37 volumes, Pliny chronicled the natural world, including quite a few fundamental misunderstandings. Did you know that fennel root somehow helps snakes shed their skin? It doesn’t. Sorry, Pliny. 2. Original Encyclopedia Britannica 3.59 MB The first edition, published in 1768, comprised just three volumes, released in weekly installments. It included such ­scintillating six-word articles as “Woman: the female of man, see homo.” 3. Canon of medicine 7....

So why is something like this necessary? Monitoring the computers systems under their purview is a major challenge for cybersecurity departments. In order to stop hacks—or piece together what happened after one—these departments need to be able to see information about things like the number of recent login attempts, what files have been accessed, and when it’s all happened. To do this, they typically use a lot of different software—most of which uses its own proprietary data structures....

Thankfully, providing enrichment for chickens is surprisingly easy, and can be as simple as adding a rustic wooden swing to their stagnant environment. This kind of structural enrichment has the added benefit of being incredibly entertaining to watch; you have not lived until you’ve seen a chicken turn a coop into a playground as it swings back and forth, clucking curiously. Plus, you can make one from materials you probably already have....

THE ROBO The RoboRoach kit contains a circuit board and controller, but you can hack the essential parts from a remote-controlled Hexbug toy. CIRCUIT BOARD Remove the Hexbug’s circuit board. The toy’s infrared remote control can start and stop current to the roach’s antennae from afar. TIMER CHIP Electricity needs to flow at 55 pulses per second to mimic the chatter of roach neurons (and hijack the insect’s senses). Computer chips called 555 timers can get the job done....

How to start buying a domain name The only way to buy domain names is through a domain name registrar, which must be on the books of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—the organization charged with keeping the web’s domain names in order. ICANN looks after the Domain Name System (DNS) protocols that make sure you get to the right website when you type a URL into your browser’s address bar....